Noah's Ultimate Speech at UC Berkeley

Last updated on April 2, 2017

This is a speech I gave at UC Berkeley last week about life, love, working at Intel and more...

This is one of my first speeches...ever. You can briefly see my friend Tim Ferriss on the side. He was nice enough to let me use his camera. Unfortunately, it ran out of tape from his speech :O Fortunately, he's a bad ass and has done a few more speeches since then!

74 responses to “Noah's Ultimate Speech at UC Berkeley”

There is nothing more I love then going back in time and seeing how someone started, or how he was thinking back then etc and now because of the internet (and the fact that everything stays online forever), we have access to anybody's story, at anytime. I checked recently Marie Forleo's first website and videos, Mixergy's Andrew Warners, etc. Once you see that, it's encouraging and you understand that successful people started from zero like all of us and then slowly developed into what they are now.

I love when people genuinely talk about themselves. I believe in the theory that if your friend is happy your own happiness goes up by 50%, and if his friend is happy your own happiness goes up by 25% and so on.

Great stuff Noah! You asked about what to talk about? I wonder if you always had this energy, enthusiasm, like "in your face" type of character 🙂 I think you do a pretty awesome job simplifying what others may take as complex but i feel is due your positive attitude more than anything. How did you trained yourself to be so awesome!? 🙂

I met you once at an intel thing ( carrie's birthday) at suite 181, and sounds like you're up to something interesting I also got " rejected at Google".. which I think is something alot of us Berkeley grads have gone through, but nevertheless, seems like it's brought out the best in all of us hahaha. I'm going to begin my foray into product management at eBay ( strange for an english major I guess.) but I'm happy.

Wow! I just randomly stumbled across your page while searching (Google) for a topic for a special occasion speech I have to give in my public speaking class.. I absolutely loved this, really helped me as well; lately, I have been feeling very overwhelmed with the full load I am taking at school, but this speech has given me the wake-up call I was in need of (back to the books I go)! You are awesome, keep doing what you do!

Honestly, one of the greatest rewards I can get is someone telling someone else about that site. Thank you for sharing this post with friends.

I got asked what are some of the domains I mention:

mymint.com, free online money management. I work there.
noahkagan.com, my personal cheesy bio site.
okdork.com, you are there, nice.
hfgconsulting.com, a business I started in college
ninjacard.com, a student discount card I ran for 2 years

I seriously love everyone of you. I love helping others/public speaking but always question people who give advice/speeches who have not accomplished much. I want to get a few more wins underneath my belt before I "hit" the circuit.

what a coincidence cos i had a public speaking gig at a high school here in Singapore last saturday and was wondering if you do the same. =D Awesome presentation, what did you those attendees eat? they were giggling throughout and really enjoyed your company eh.. 😉

David Koresh potential??
I am already IN. I will die for Noah Kagan. Noah is the shiznit.

I am building a house for my guru in Waco as we speak. He requested the mansion to be filled with 88 virgins and a mac laptop. All he wants to do is make sweet love, sew the royal oats and blog. What a simple man.

- congrats on Mint. it sounds pretty sexy. I'd definitely, definitely use it.
- you could put together a video series you show online. for the really good, uncensored stuff, you sell it for like $5 a download. get on the conference / speaking circuit through the Kauffman Entrepreneurship Center. deep pockets, wide influence.

I'm preparing for doing some tours here locally in Indiana on blogging/corporate blogging. Nothing too spectacular, just 45 min or so in a 8 hour "Web Intro" tour.

Perhaps you can do some gigs like that local to you. I had an Internet firm seek me out because of my blog's traction here in the area.

The other idea you may think about is a vlog. There's not too many good ones around. I've just started using Democracy a few weeks ago and I'm hooked... GeekBrief TV, zefrank, and TWiT. There's not too many good ones out there!

The joke you didn't get was "If you want to be an accountant, go join their club and be their treasurer". I thought that was hilarious!
Seriously, I really enjoyed this presentation. Inspiring to an older than 27 entrepreneur.

Laura, I would love to go back and speak anytime. I really enjoy attention so more speaking the better=P

Justin, I am not sure to laugh or be sad=) I guess I will take it politely and try harder to keep it real on my site and not be so dorky. I have noticed that a lot of the people I meet from there blogs are dorkier in real life. Maybe I need to tone up my blog. I guess since I started getting more readers I have toned it down. Relating back to my how not to be a pussy post. I will try harder.

The event was supposed to be a panel on technology and business from csba.berkeley.edu (computer science and business association, a club I started) and groups.haas.berkeley.edu/aba (asian business association). When we arrived they said we each are speaking for 15-20 minutes and this is what I rambled about. It is kind of a trip for me to realize how much I have gone through/done in just 2 years out of college. I guess what is more exciting is what's next...